e few weeks back I remember seeing a post a bout pens.
I did not read it because I thought, well, wtf... pens?
holycrap...
my birthday is coming up and I have also quit my job for a new, better one, so I thought, hey, let's get me a pen as a present!
to sign off the new contract, blah blah blah.
funny...
you think of the rolex of pens, montblanc, and consider that there must be something else beyond their halo,
so...
I popped in the net and did a search for the pen I fancy (Omas 360 mezzo, just back from the penshop, no?)
man...
I'M HOOKED!!!!
and the bloody things are almost more expensive than watches!
:roll:
bloody internet....
I sort of got into Fountain pens 10 years back.
I've got an expensive Waterman, but to be honest, although it feels nice, it doesn't write that great. When I first bought it, I sent it back to Waterman to be serviced, but it still didn't feel quite right.
The two best pens I have are antique Swan pens, lovely to write with and a nice feel.
Also everyone doesn't have one 8)
I've never had enough money for it to matter, but I've always been under the impression that just about no matter what your interest is, you can find ways to spend big on it. Food, clothes, wine, watches, pens, bicycles, birdwatching, .... :)
Best wishes,
Bob
Very sage and very true Bob. :)Originally Posted by rfrazier
Cheers,
Neil.
I have 'accumulated' a few nice presentation boxed pens/pencils from suppliers over the years and it seems to have turned into a small 'collection'. It's not a hobby or an interest really - just don't want lose or use them. Nice little luxuries, the same as watches.
I use a fountain pen at work the whole time, I've got half a dozen or so, with my main users being a Namiki VP, a Pelikan M800 and a Pilot Sailor (in that order). There are plenty of fountain pen lovers here, I think you'll find!
Dave E
Skating away on the thin ice of a new day
I used to sell them in my first job, in a bookshop, when I was young.
Still have a few old ones, but don't collect them.
But if I have to write something, I allways use good quality paper and a decent fountain-pen.
Cheers,
Daddel.
Got a new watch, divers watch it is, had to drown the bastard to get it!
These are my pens.
I paid £2 for the grey Burnham last year. The shop was closing down and it had never been used, still having the original price tag on it. The ink reservoir was completely perished so I just installed a new one. A great writer.
The Parker 51 writes completely differently but equally well and cost me £2 at a car boot sale about 15 years ago.
Cheers,
Martin
Was given an Alfred Dunhill AD2000 a couple of years ago as a gift. Absolutely stunning piece of engineering!
100% in agreement with Bob (add old books as well!)
(I have a good amount of fountain pens, not very expensive but I do have two montblanc, one cartier and one Omas, but othing compared to my watches..... :wink: )
Check out Conway Stewart (easy to google), much more exlclusive than Mont Blanc or Parker and with a great history - used by Churchill during the war no less!
Believe it or not I have recently started to use fountain pens for the first time since school, after reading some of the threads on this forum.
I now have a Waterman Hemisphere, and a Lamy Al-Star and I use them all the time at work now.
Ed
I have a few but wouldn't call myself a collector. A Pelikan M800 (love it), three Watermans at various price points and a couple of 'beaters'; a Lamy Safari and a Parker Jotter. There is definitely much the same pleasure to be found in writing with a fountain pen and wearing a mechanical watch.
Nope, sorry, just don't get it. A pen is a pen, as far as I can see.
Never use the damn things anyhow, these days.... :?
Jim :)
Can't beat the Osmiroid with lever fill I had when I was nine. With an italic nib because that's the style the school taught. :wink:
Tibaldi Iride and Impero, Dunhill 2000 and Sidecar, one pre-WWII De La Rue Onoto 5601 and two post-war, Swan Visofil, celluloid Platinum with 3-tined music nib, and just bought two vintage Chinese pens, one wrapped (and now un-wrapping) celluloid, the other rubber.
no no, guys... I DO NOT WANT TO BECOME A PEN MANIAC AS WELL!!!
please shut up!!!
:wink:
hey, today I learned about the parker 51,
the pen from another planet... whatever.
cool stuff.
you know, I was just wondering what I'd be using more often, a watch or a pen?
ok, yes, cartier makes a pen with a watch, but it looks like crap and I don't wish to stick that on my wrist.
look, Its late, I need sle...
hold on...
FRIDAY WATCH!!!!!!!
Everything's relative. There are watches that go well into six or seven figures, but I don't think I've seen pens go that high.
You can get into the equivalent of AP/PP/VC/Lange of pens by the time you hit £500 or so, which is more than one can say for watches. And it's the Italians to go for, not the Swiss...
Now I just need to use mine more. I have a Visconti Titanium Skeleton FP limited edition, and a custom stub nibbed ST Dupont Orpheo Chairman LE in platinum and lacquer...but what do I use most? A caran d'ache ballpoint. :P
Ming
guys! guys!
sorry, just back from the friday thread...
I meant watches I can afford.
you see, I'm tired,need sledfdaneòhh4tnskkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk
damn! fell asleep on the keyboard again.
goonight.
d
I need a d right there.
upstairs.
night
oh, bugger...
An interesting parallel with the watch world, perhaps, because the present day Conway Stewart has as much to do with the original company as, for example, the modern Panerai has with its WWII predecessor.
Each, today, is a product of the transfer of brand equity from the past to the present by clever entrepreneurs.
I think fountain pens are quite funky, but like you, I don't write with pens. About the only time I use them now is when I have to sign something. I've never had good handwriting, but now, if I had to sit an exam or something, I'd be stuffed. I even use my PC for taking notes now.
EW
I love Parker 51's. :)
Here is an old pic of my single unboxed pens.
There are a lot more than that now. :roll:
Edit: found a couple more pics.
A minty boxed 51 in a lizard skin box. :)
.........and here's a nice nickel plate Conway Stewart. Like most of the others a boot sale find. :D
Cheers,
Neil.
like all goods, you can get a finer appreciation for a pen. i mean, though many things are computerised, you will have still have to write at one point or another. i have a parker sonnet and a caran d'ache FP.
You can quite easily compare watches and pens in similar ways
ie. quartz vs mechanical/automatic and ballpoint/rollerball vs fountain pen
comparable finish between brands, use of materials, styling, functionality etc
the fact that they are small goods that we can carry with us all the time, use them all the time and reflect a similar history in the decline and rise of somewhat dated pieces of technology.
also there is just a certain something about using a fountain pen that is hard to explain. with the right nib, it just feels incredibly smooth. and honestly, the nibs themselves are quite an attraction, especially the higher end ones. makes writing slightly more interesting...
There's an awful lot out there, as there is with many luxury or expensive items - pens, musical instruments, hi-fi, watches, jewellery, clothes - all very fragmented markets.
Being a leftie I don't really get on with fountain pens, never having learned to write like Captain Hook. But I do have a matt black Parker 25 from about 1983 which I still use from time to time. Still in good nick, and doesn't look its age.
...but what do I know; I don't even like watches!
My everyday writers are Pelikan M600 and M200 both green.
For special occasions I have a Montblac Bohème Platinum Onyx:
It is lovely to turn the penpoint inside or out.
When I took my GCEs (notGCSEs) in the early 1960s we were told by our form master that if we submitted O or A level papers written in biro they would not be marked. As a result we all wrote in fountain pen. I think the teacher may have been bu-------g!
I did an OU degree some years ago and I wrote the answers to ALL my exam papers with this pen.
I mentioned earlier that I purchased it at a car boot sale about 15 years ago for £2.
It has a perfect combination of very smooth nib, generous consistent ink flow page after page, and a very large ink capacity.
It is one possession I will never part with.
Cheers,
Martin
It's probably too late!!
My interest in pens was rekindled in this devil's forum of temptation :lol:
It gave me a great idea for a presnt for my daughter's 18th birthday just before Christmas and we bought her a Pelikan M200 in red. Appropriate for the amount of writing that she does.
Of course, whilst I was buying hers, I just happened to think "Hmm they're really rather good and well made", so....
shown with another pre-Christmas arrival.
Cheers,
Nigel
A perfect post for this thread.
Visually, the Omega and Pelikan suit each other well (and that strap is a gem), and they match well, too, in terms of their positions in their respective industries.
And a watch is just a watch? :D
I use a Danitrio Densho eye-dropper with an italic nib customised by John Mottishaw - probably my favourite pen of all time.
The one I use most often after this one is an Aurora Optima, again with an italic JM nib. Great pen, fantastic, but has an annoying habit of giving me inky fingers.
I also have a lovely (boxed) Parker 51, and while it is incredibly reliable, the nibs on these are a bit nail-like, and much as I want to like this classic design, it is a little too small in my hand and so is uncomfortable after a while.
Another very handy pen is the Pilot Decimo. Oh yeah, and I have a Lamy 2000 but it lays down too much ink for this left-hander so doesn't get used much. What else - a Sheaffer Snorkel, which is another classic design. Works really well but tends to leak / release ink at inopportune moments so it is a bit of a drawer queen.
There have been quite a few pen threads in the pub if you do a search.
There is much talk (and gnashing of teeth) here and on other watch fora about the generally piss-poor after sales service offered by watch companies.
Well, I have a Mont Blanc fountain pen which I use pretty well every day and have done for at least the last 10 years. A couple of years ago it seemed to be not writing as smoothly as usual, so I took it the Mont Blanc shop where there is an on-site technician. I told him the problem and he invited me to sit down (little reception area - chairs, coffee table, magazines) and proceeded to faff about with my pen - dismantling it, looking at the nib through a microscope, tapping it wth a small hammer, etc. Finally, he asked me to try it and, of course, it was perfect.
Now here is where the comarison with Rolex falls down. I asked him how much I owed him (naturally, well out of guarantee) and he told me 'nothing' and just indicated a small 'tips' saucer on the counter.
Agreed! I actually bought one about a year ago as I'd found my writing had become appalling. The main problem is that most of my written communication is now done via a PC and not a writing pad and my handwriting (that was not good to begin with) has suffered dramatically as a result. A fountain pen forces you to think a little more, to be more deliberate with your strokes and my handwriting improves as a result. Being lefthanded is a test with a fountain pen, though.. :?
Here's the one I use:
You think pens are bad? I started with one golf club and now I have 14 in my bag! :shock:
My most used pen is a Lamy Al-star, as it's my cheap one and I don't mind throwing it in my bag.
My favourite pen is my Lamy 2000 - very cool design and nice to write with (I use Noodler's walnut). My wife uses a Pilot VP which is very cool.
At some point in my life I'll get a Pelikan, but that's for the future.
... I hate you guys... :wink:
...
took the wifey to the penshop last saturday.
message for the birthday present was copied.
she'll be raising funds with the party guests.
man... I love her.
which reminds me...
...
...but, that's another story!
Most of my writing is done on a whiteboard (used to be on a chalk board). White board markers certainly don't help with elegance. And, if you has a low baseline to start with, it all gets dodgy quickly. I sometimes write something and see my students trying to guess whether it is written in some natural language, or whether I'm using some esoteric logical notation.
Best wishes,
Bob
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